Kenneth Jackson Davey OBE (7 December 1932[1] – 19 February 2021[2][3]) was Emeritus Professor at the International Development Department, University of Birmingham and former Senior Adviser to the Local Government and Public Service reform Initiative of the Open Society Foundations.
His work in latter years focused particularly on assistance to local government reform in Central and Eastern Europe, and he was director of research into the institutional framework of urban management.
Between 1972-2008, he carried out consultancies on intergovernmental fiscal relations and public administration reform for the Council of Europe, DFID, EU, UNCHS, United Nations Development Programme, World Bank and other agencies in Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Turkey and Uganda.
Davey led a group of European experts examining the effects of the 2007–2008 global financial crisis at the local level.
This work was carried out by the European Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR) at the Council of Europe, in co-operation with the Open Society Foundation.